Welcome back to ringside my friends. As I type this, the NHL Trade Deadline has just passed and I am pissed off, but I’ll get to that later. We start with wrestling:
News & Shit
TNA Saturday Rating: 0.7
Many people blame the low rating on 2 free boxing shows and a UFC PPV. Whatever, it’s about the average rating they have been getting. .7, .8, and .9 have been the three ratings that they have been pulling since the debut. I blame the rating on nothing, they are right on average.
Ron Killings in line for a big push
All I can say is….
That’s really it from the news front. Not much happening this week in TNA.
Destination X Preview
So, uhhhh, what’s there to preview? The only match TNA has announced that I have yet to shed some light on is Bentley against Hoyt. Do I really care about that match? Not in the bit. This match came from an angle shot at Xplosion. That’s how much TNA really gives a shit about this match. They don’t have the time to shoot the Bentley turn angle for Impact but they have the time to have Hoyt squash Kenny King to show that “he’s really mad at Bentley.” I guess I can’t say too many bad things about this match though, at least TNA gave them an angle to play off of and they’re not just throwing the two in a match at the PPV.
Oh yes, Destination X marks the return of Sting errrrr, Steve Borden. As you may know by now, I am a Sting mark, so you won’t hear me complaining about him returning. Personally, I like where TNA is going with this. He is returning as a man, not as a character. He feels that his personal life has been screwed around with and now he wants revenge. This plan is much better than “Hey, you videotaped my family and my life without my permission, now I’ll return as some guy in face paint.” This also keeps the notion that “Sting is retired” in tact. I figure Steve Borden will come out during the HUGE Eight Man Tag, run off Jarrett, and the feud continues.
Ah, but now we have a twist. Jarrett said he had someone’s number on speed dial at the end of Impact. So who’s number is it? Honestly, I really don’t care. It’s probably some old washed up WCW talent who can’t hack it anymore. I’ll throw out a few names that TNA could bring in that make sense in this story:
1. Lex Luger – I don’t think he’s in jail, but I could be wrong. Everyone knows the history between Luger and Sting and everyone knows they’re BFFs. Luger could talk Sting out of beating the hell out of Jarrett.
2. Scott Steiner – This is the most likely answer considering the recent talk going on between TNA and Steiner. Steiner could come in and be Jarrett’s hired Suplex Machine, because God knows he can’t do anything else in the ring.
3. Warrior Warrior – Yes, bring Sting’s former tag team partner to TNA and have him confront Sting. Have Warrior babble about how he was so awesome in the WWF and how he was always a bigger name than Sting.
All three choices suck and I would hate any of the choices. I hope TNA doesn’t go this route, but knowing TNA, they will. Maybe they’ll shock the damn world and bring in Chris Jericho. Does he fit in with the storyline? Not really, but he owns Warrior, Luger, and Steiner in every aspect of wrestling.
I figure TNA will throw together some matches like they always do. Guys like Sabin, Dutt, Team Canada, and others are not on the card. A match like Sabin vs. Petey vs. Lethal would be a hot opener to get the crowd into the PPV early.
Oh yeah, I of course can’t end this section without mentioning the two pre-show matches, which are Not CM Punk vs. Cassidy Riley and Diamonds In The Rough vs. Shark Boy & Norman Smiley. There, I mentioned them.
I received an e-mail asking “Why do you call my man Shannon Moore ‘Not CM Punk’?” Well the answer is simple. On the recent episode of Impact TNA advertised the Main Event as “Samoa Joe & Punk vs. AJ Styles & Christopher Daniels.” Notice how they only put Punk? Not Shannon More, not Prince Of Punk, and not even Moore, just Punk. I don’t know about you, but when I see “Punk” associated with wrestling, I think CM Punk. The whole Punk vs. Joe trilogy doesn’t make me think Shannon Moore vs. Just Joe (blind shout out to Chris). That is why I have named Shannon Moore, Not CM Punk.
Overall, Destination X looks solid and should easily top last years Worst TNA PPV Of The Year. Monty Brown vs. Christian Cage will be solid and should equal or possibly pass their match from Turning Point. The HUGE Eight Man Tag won’t be so bad and hey, Jarrett is out of the title picture, so that’s already a thumbs up. Joe/Styles/Daniels in the Ultimate X is my main reason for ordering the PPV. Those guys are three of the best workers in the world today. We know what they can do in a normal match setting, adding the innovative X Wires to the match can only make it that much better. I’ll go ahead and call this spot of the match because if they pull it off, I look like a f*cking genius:
AJ scales the wires by hooking his feet on the wires. His hands slip apart and AJ now dangles on the wires by his feet. Joe grabs him and hits the Muscle Buster off the X Wires.
Will that spot happen? Probably not, but if it does, I will be the first to rub it in everyone’s face next week.
Check out the Roundtable this weekend for more on the PPV as well as my predictions.
At Rinkside
So with not much going on in the world of TNA, I figure I would rant a little about the NHL Trade Deadline. As you may know, I am a huge Colorado Avalanche. I spent my money on the NHL Center Ice Package to catch every Avs game and I have stuck with them through thick and thin. With that said, in the past 24 hours, they f*cked up:
Montreal Canadiens Trade Goaltender Jose Theodore to Colorado Avalanche for Goaltender David Aebischer
Now if this was November, I would have loved this trade. Because in November, Aebischer was playing like shit and the season was still young. Well it’s now March and here’s the difference between Abby and Theo. Abby has been playing well, making roughly 1 million dollars, and is healthy. Theo on the other hand has played like shit all year, making roughly 5 million dollars, and is injured. Do you see the difference? Hell, even if both men were making the same amount of money and they were both playing on the same level, one man is injured while the other is healthy. You ever play sports a game where you try to trade for an injured player and a screen pops up that says, “Peyton Manning is currently injured, you cannot trade for him”? That’s what should have happened in this situation. A f*cking screen should have come up right in front of Pierre Lacroix (Avs GM) that said, “You f*cking idiot, Jose Theodore is injured, you cannot trade for him.” Sadly, no such screen exists. Oh, but it gets worse.
Knowing Pierre Lacroix and knowing his deadline day magic, I stayed optimistic. I still had hope that Pierre would trade for a 2nd Line Winger (to replace Steve Konowalchuk) and a Depth Defensemen (to replace Ossi Vannanen). And what did Lacriox do? They traded for Jim Dowd, a lifetime 4th line player. Oh, but it gets worse.
Today the Avalanche found out that rookie sensation Marek Svatos is out for the season and the playoffs. So know how stupid do the Avs look? They fix the one thing that’s not broken and they leave the broken things unfixed.
Now the question will be, can Theodore, Lacroix, and the Avs make me and a bunch of other people look like idiots? That of course remains to be seen. How will we see it? Well Theodore must show signs of the MVP from a few years ago and guide the Avs to the cup. The thing is, at this point, the Avs may not make the playoffs. They are starting two young goaltenders and now have injury problems. And if they don’t make the playoffs, Theodore won’t dress in a Colorado Avalanche uniform until next season…if he’s still around.
In other news, my hometown Carolina Hurricanes picked up Mark Recchi from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Well the Canes are already going to make the playoffs and win their division, that’s a given. I only like this deal because now the Canes have another scorer to help them reach the Stanley Cup Finals, which means I can see the Cup Finals in person, which makes me happy.
Now I could go into detail about the other NHL Deals but I honestly don’t care about the other teams. At Rinkside will return as soon as the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin and will be a weekly thing all throughout the playoffs. I just hope the wrestling world of TNA doesn’t stand still like it did this week.
YouTube Match Of The Week
So with the rumor going around that Joe will finally lose the X Division title at Destination X, I figure we should take a look back at another time when Joe lost a major title.
Match: Samoa Joe © vs. Austin Aries for the ROH World Title
Event: ROH Final Battle 2004
Rating: ****
Plugs
Eric gives you his travel schedule and so much more.
Hevia rewinds time.
Phil & J.D. talk about the worst Mania’s ever.
Andy Mac talks about ROH departures.
David reminds Neeley of why he fell in love with Jarrett.
Omar talks NHL deadline deals.
As a note, thank you to the two people who actually e-mailed Mark Neeley and told him to stop begging for plugs. Now, e-mail him and tell him how much the Columbus Blue Jackets suck.
The End
Gone until next week my peeps. Speaking of next week, I’ll have the fall out from Destination X and whatever else I feel like speaking about. Drop me a line at AMPLine4Life@aol.com and join me next time At Ringside.
